The Poker Lab Rat

Day 1b of the main event is now complete after 1,157 players started and whittled down to 621 players who would come back for Day 2.

There were plenty of high profile eliminations with former champions Greg Reymer, and Jamie Gold going early and Daniel Negreanu, Lee Watkinson, Ted Forrest, Kenny Tran and Irish player Andy Black also all taking the long lonely walk of elimination.

Leading the way is Ben Sarnoff who built his stack to 177,000. Just behind Sarnoff is Brian Schaedlich with 156,000. He qualified via a $130 satellite at Mountaineer Race Track in West Virginia. This is Schaedlich’s first time in Las Vegas.

Robert Mizrachi managed to build his stack to 131,000 and finds himself in fourth spot. Two spots behind him is Canadian Marc Karam with 113,000. 2008 WSOP Player-of-the-Year Erick Lindgren found himself at the feature table for the entire day and wound up in the top 20 in chips with 93,325.

The 616 players who survived the day will return on Tuesday at Noon PT and combine with the 636 players left from Day 1a action. Mark Garner fron Day 1a is still the current overall chip leader with 194,900.

Daniel Negreanu won a fourth WSOP bracelet and $205K by claiming all the chips in Event #20 the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event. (479 entries)

Unlike some of the earlier events, this final table was full of players who had yet to win a bracelet (plus Negreanu) so the 33-year old Canadian was a solid favourite when everyone sat down.

The play was fairly winning with Negreanu and David Baker trading shots, and eventually it got down to three handed action with these two and Ugur Marangoz.

When three handed play got underway Baker began to struggle, taking several hits from Marangoz and even having his river bluff picked off by Negreanu with nothing better than Ace-high. A few hands later Negreanu rivered a gutshot straight against Baker, sending him out in 3rd place.

Heads-up play began with Negreanu taking a monster pot off Marangoz when he flopped a flush and got Marangoz to four-bet the turn and call another bet on the river. The pot all but devastated Marangoz’s stack.

A few hands later Negreanu raised all-in on a board of 5-K-5-Q-3. Marangoz threw in his few remaining chips and Negreanu showed 9-5 for three-of-a-kind. Marangoz couldn’t beat it and was eliminated in 2nd place (winning $126K).

Negreanu shook his opponents’ hand then thanked the fans for staying to watch, saying that having “home team advantage” helped him stay positive when he was short stacked during the middle stages of the day.  

What do you consider the greatest bluff you ever pulled off?

That one’s easy. A hand against Freddy Deeb in 2004.

In heads-up play, I put a bluff raise on Freddy that was sophisticated in that I didn’t go all-in. I made it look like I really wanted him to call. I limped in with Ah-7d, the blinds were 800/1600, he raised 7000 more, and I called. The flop was Ks-6h-2h. He bet about 16000, and I called with the intention of taking the pot from him on the turn. The turn came, the 4s. He checked, so I went ahead and bet 30000, trying to pick up the pot. He called. Now the river came, the 4h. It paired the board and put a flush out there, and I had the ace of hearts, but not the flush. He bet 65000, so most people would fold, just throw the hand away. But instead, I knew he couldn’t have the nut flush, and I knew he didn’t have full house, so I decided to represent one of those hands and I raised him just 100,000 more.

So he looked at it and he’s like, “You must have flopped a set”, and he threw the hand away. And, of course, I show the bluff…

Who’s the player you just can’t get a read on?

John Hennigan. He switches gears so quickly. Once you think you have a read on him, that’s when he flips it on you and he just switches gears. When he’s playing his best, he’s arguably the best player I’ve ever played. He plays at another level – above the rim. Him, Ted Forrest and Phil Ivy all have similar qualities in that they think about poker in a very unique way.

Is Phil Hellmuth really as good as he thinks he is?

Oh, not even close. Nobody could ever be as good as he thinks he is. Doyle Brunson once said “I wish I was as good as he thought he was”. His evaluation of his own play is way off base. He walks into the cash games and the side games, and literally, the top players, we all lick our lips. Yum, yum, here comes a sucker.

I think when he plays his best, he plays pretty good, but the young kids today are studying and learning so much, and he’s not. He’s just not focused.
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